Karl Popper (1902 – 1994) ~ Quote of the Day

Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994), Austro-British philosopher and professor at the London School of Economics.  He is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century; he also wrote extensively on social and political philosophy. In 1992 he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for "symbolizing the open spirit of the 20th century" and for his "enormous influence on the formation of the modern intellectual climate".

In 1937, the rise of Nazism and the threat of the Anschluss led Popper to emigrate to New Zealand, where he became lecturer in philosophy at Canterbury University College New Zealand (at Christchurch), where he wrote his influential work The Open Society and its Enemies. In 1946, he moved to England to become reader in logic and scientific method at the London School of Economics, subjects in which he was appointed as professor of at the University of London in 1949. Popper was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1958 to 1959. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976.  He retired from academic life in 1969, though he remained intellectually active for the rest of his life. He was invested with the Insignia of a Companion of Honour in 1982. Popper was a member of the Academy of Humanism and described himself as an agnostic, showing respect for the moral teachings of Judaism and Christianity.

“We all remember how many religious wars were fought
  for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies
  were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of
  saving souls from the eternal fire of hell”
                                                                                           ~  Karl Popper